Having recently returned from my annual trip to the Sundance Film Festival, which marks the beginning of the programming season for the Philadelphia Film Festival (PFF), I wanted to share some of my favorite films.

So here we are, once again in the midst of the holiday movie season with plenty of family fun and enchantment to choose from: The Muppets make a comeback, Happy Feet II or is it III? For the tweens and teens, another addition to the Twilight Saga, and for adults wanting to take their children to something magical with a message – Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, based on Brian Selznick award winning book The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

Without knowing the details of the film, someone walking past a poster for My Week with Marilyn would certainly think it was yet another Marilyn Monroe biopic. They would, however, be mistaken. Though a spitting image of the Hollywood icon, the face staring out from the glossy posters is not Marilyn’s but Michelle Williams’. Along with Eddie Redmayne, Kenneth Branagh, and Dame Judi Dench, Williams stars in this intimate glimpse of the most famous actress in the world.

Director Steve McQueen(Hunger), (why doesn’t he go by S. McQueen or use his middle name, Rodney or Stephen?) has created an intense character study of a sex addict without really having to go overboard on graphic content. There are a lot of very visual sex scenes, but it’s not gratuitous. With that being said, it was still embarrassing to watch the film with so many senior citizens.

If I owned an incredibly elegant, picturesque, stately castle with an 18 hole golf course and stable full of horses, I too would be sad and scared to see the end of the world, because you gotta figure life on the other side might not be as good.